I have a quandary. Or a dilemma. Or maybe just a puzzlement.
In a way, it has been answered, but in a way, some mystery remains.
Sometimes my batter comes out very thin and sometimes it is very thick- when using the exact same measurements from the same recipe. This has puzzled me for years.
I finally know why this happens.
For liquids, I use my glass Pyrex measuring cups. I have a one-cup, a two-cup, and a four-cup measure. A few months ago, I found out that the one-cup line is not consistent for all three of them! If I measure out one cup of liquid in then one-cup measure, and pour it into either of the larger ones, it does not come up to the one-cup line! The difference is a few tablespoons, which is enough to cause quite different results in baking.
When I made the pancakes from my earlier post, I used the smaller measure. I had a rather thin batter, which made thin, very moist pancakes. Yesterday, I used the two-cup measure, and had a thick batter. It made thicker, taller pancakes.
Here is the part that still puzzles me: though I now know which to use for myself, to get the results I want, I actually have no idea which measure is correct! This matters, when writing recipes for other people! If I say I used one cup of liquid, and you end up with an impossibly runny batter...that's not helpful. If I say to use 3/4 cup of liquid, and your batter is grossly stodgy and makes heavy, dry pancakes...well, that's not good either.
So, there is the dilemma. Of course, you can easily start with less liquid and add more until you get the consistency you prefer, but I would really like to know that I'm giving out good, helpful information.
Hmmm......I would imagine that, if I got a kitchen scale, I could weigh the filled measuring cup, and that would give me an idea of which is right! :) I do know the old rhyme of, "a pint's a pound, the world around." That being so, then a cup of water should weight eight ounces, right? I'll ponder this. I might just need to get a kitchen scale, in order to solve the mystery. Oh darn. ;) ;)
Friday, April 27, 2018
Cinnamon Bit Fry-cakes
Really, these are pancakes, but "fry-cakes" is just such a fun word that I had to use it. ;)
Usually, I cook pancakes on our electric griddle, but yesterday I just didn't feel like clearing the space and hauling it out. I fried these up in a ceramic-lined non-stick skillet...and they were so good! <3
Funny that when I cook them on a griddle, they're "pan" cakes, but cooked in a pan, they have other names. Some people call them hotcakes or flapjacks. Because they had that delectable crunch from being fried in oil, "fry-cakes" just fit the best.
The cinnamon bits that I use are from the King Arthur Flour website. There are cinnamon chips available in some grocery stores, but I don't like them. To me, those just taste like Red-Hots candy; all heat and no real cinnamon flavor. They also usually contain trace amounts of dairy. The bits from King Arthur melt into pockets of delicious real cinnamon goodness when they bake, and they are now dairy-free! :)
Here's the link, in case you want to check them out:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/cinnamon-sweet-bits
They also have these delicious things that they call "jammy bits," which are little gummy nuggets of fruit puree. When they're baked, they really do seem like little bits of real fruit jam. So good! :)
https://search.kingarthurflour.com/search?p=Q&view=grid&deftab=products&w=jammy+bits
Okay, now to the recipe...
This is a work in progress, like all my recipes, but especially so since I just made them for the first time yesterday. They were so good, though, that I wanted to share them right away.
Cinnamon Bit Fry-Cakes
Makes about 12 - four inch cakes
Dry ingredients:
1 cup millet flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1 Tablespoon baking powder (I may try a little less, next time)
1 Tablespoon coconut sugar (other sugars would work fine; this is what I used and it was good)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup oil (I used a mild avocado oil; any mild neutral oil will do)
2 teaspoons melted coconut oil
3/4 cup alternative milk (I use unsweetened original-flavor Coconut Dream coconut milk)
Add-in:
2 Tablespoons cinnamon bits from King Arthur Flour Company
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add them to the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the cinnamon bits, then let the batter rest while you heat your skillet.
I used a ceramic-lined non-stick skillet. On our (glass-top) stove, I set the burner to medium at first, but turned it down about halfway through the batch.
Pour about two tablespoons of oil into your pan and heat on medium (or a little below medium) heat. To check if the pan is ready, drop a little bit of the batter into the oil. If the oil bubbles and sizzles around the edges, it's ready. Drop batter into heated pan carefully- about 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Flatten/spread slightly. Let them cook until the edges look set and the bottom is a nice golden brown. Flip and cook the other side, until it is also nicely browned and the cakes are cooked through. Add a little more oil to the pan for each batch. If the fry-cakes are getting too brown before the middle is cooked, lower the heat. If they take a super long time to brown, raise the heat.
With the "juiciness" from being fried in oil, I did not feel a need to butter these, but my husband liked them better buttered. Also, they were sweet enough that I did not want any syrup on them.
The cakes came out about 3 1/2-4 inches in diameter, and I ended up with about twelve cakes.
My mind is popping with other ideas, such as adding bits of walnut to these. Can't wait!
If you try them, please leave a comment and let me know how they turned out for you. :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
What's good about my food limitations...
I am sort of like Pollyanna if, in addition to her perpetual optimism, she also had occasional bouts of anxiety and mild depression. :) ...which she did, actually, until all of her friends and loved ones gathered 'round to help her remember the reasons she had to be glad.
Having my food world grow more and more narrow has been difficult. I'm not a trend-follower, but someone seeking answers to my health issues and going with the things that seem to help.
Sometimes, it gets very hard.
So...I try (like Pollyanna) to find reasons to be glad.
Here is one reason that living within these parameters is good:
I can eat all the raw cookie dough I want, and have no fears about salmonella poisoning! :D
Because all of my baking is essentially vegan (because I don't do dairy or eggs), it is perfectly safe to sample when it's raw. :)
Anytime I take a pinch of cookie dough, I smile and think, "I couldn't do this if it had eggs in it!"
**
The salmonella thing is real, unfortunately. I used to be a cookie dough rebel, scoffing at the danger. ...until my sister's friend and both her parents ended up in the emergency room, severely ill with salmonella, from eating raw cookie dough. oh. Okay.
**
Why raw eggs can sit out in Europe, but not in the U.S.: I have seen and heard much debate on this subject. It can get pretty funny, with people here in the U.S. being portrayed as big egg "sissies" who are much too over-protective of their food. As it turns out, there's a good reason for keeping our eggs in the fridge. In Europe, eggs still have their natural waxy coating, so they are impermeable. They can safely sit out on a counter and not spoil. Here in the U.S. eggs are washed in such a way that the coating is removed, making it necessary to keep them cold to preserve freshness.
**
Who is Pollyanna? For those who may not know, Pollyanna is a character from a book by that name, written many years ago by Eleanor H. Porter. It was also made into a movie, decades ago, with Hayley Mills starring as Pollyanna, and I've just discovered that a new movie of the story was made in 2004. Essentially, Pollyanna was a girl who believed the best of people, and always tried to find reasons to be glad and thankful, even when life was hard.
Friday, April 20, 2018
Birthday Goodness (Vanilla Poppyseed Cake)
Birthday Goodness
*tiny miracle ~ I figured out how to add photos! :)
Vanilla Poppyseed cake with Caramel Orange Frosting
I am fifty years old today! I have actually been excited to reach this milestone birthday.
I simply love fresh starts and clean slates: new days, new years, and especially new decades. Stepping into a brand new half-century is, for most people, a once-in-a-lifetime event! :)
I usually bake my own birthday cake, because I love to do it. :) It is part of the fun for me. I debated about what to bake this year. Should it be the moist chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting that received such a good response from my family? Or what about the lemon cupcakes with lemon "butter"cream that they liked even more than the chocolate?
Those are both delicious, but I think I want to try something entirely new.
.....hours later.... That's what I did! It turned out pretty well. I still need to fine-tune the frosting, but it was pretty tasty. :) In fact, I'm enjoying another piece as I write this. :) The cake is a good texture- moist and tender. It's not as light as a wheat-based cake, but a great improvement over some gluten-free cakes I've had. It received enthusiastic thumbs-ups from my hubby and our son this evening, and requests for second helpings. :)
Vanilla Poppyseed Cake (with Caramel Orange "Butter"cream Frosting)
*gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, vegan, etc. etc.
**contains nightshades**
I am just beginning the journey of learning to bake nightshade-free, so I don't have every recipe switched-over yet. This one starts with a mix that contains potato starch, and uses a butter-substitute that has pea protein in it. For those of you who have no trouble with those things, I hope you enjoy this bake. :)
**Each Betty Crocker box mix makes one layer! This is important to know ahead of time. Given the cost of gluten-free mixes, I tend to opt for making one layer, then splitting and filling it. In our small rural town, each gluten-free mix costs around five dollars, which is more than double the cost of a regular cake mix. Since we've been cutting back on sweets, having a shorter cake works better for us anyway. We still get all the yum-factor, but end up only eating half as much cake. :)
Ingredients for the cake:
1 box Betty Crocker gluten-free yellow cake mix
1 stick Earth Balance soy-free butter substitute, softened
(or 1/2 cup of the fat that works for you)
1 Tablespoon gluten-free vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon poppyseeds
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
1 Tablespoon flaxmeal
(the brown type works fine, but I think the gold flaxmeal would be prettier in a light cake)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup water
Preheat oven to: 350 (if using a shiny pan) or 325 (if using a dark or non-stick pan)
Prepare pan: lightly spray, oil or grease the bottom of the pan. I also cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom. This helps reduce the chance of tearing chunks out of the cake when you take it from the pan later.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. If using a hand mixer, the time suggested on the box should work well (a total of about 2 1/2 minutes). If you're using a stand mixer like a Kitchen Aid, it will probably take less time.
*One of the benefits of gluten-free baking is that you don't have to worry about over-working gluten and toughening your finished product. I have learned, though, that over-mixing a gluten-free batter will put too much air into it, causing it to come out drier and more crumbly. Just beat the cake batter until it's nice and smooth. It will be noticeably thicker than usual cake batter.
Gently pour/scoop the batter into the prepared pan. You don't want to lose all the lightness you just beat into it, by being too rough at this point. :) Smooth out the surface of the batter and bake.
The box directions say to bake a 9x9 cake for 33-38 minutes. This will vary, depending on the altitude at which you live. If you have adjusted the temperature correctly for the type/color of pan you used, then the baking time should be close to what they suggest. I would check it a few minutes early, just to be on the safe side. (I used an 8x8 pan to bake my cake today)
Bake until the cake has started to pull away from the sides of the pan slightly, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If there is still gooey batter sticking to it, the cake needs more time. A gluten-free cake does not usually brown the same way a wheat-based cake does, but this one sure did. When this is done, it should be a nice golden brown color . If you press gently in the center, it should feel fairly firm. If it squishes, there's probably raw batter in the middle.
Let the cake sit in the pan for a few minutes, then turn it onto a cooling rack. If you used parchment paper, carefully peel it off. Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
Caramel Orange "Butter"cream Frosting
You can certainly make this just an orange frosting, which would be faster and easier. I do love the addition of the caramel, though. I used a homemade coconut-milk caramel. You may be able to find a ready-made dairy-free caramel, in larger towns than ours. Living in the "back of beyond," I am learning to make my own.
Here is what I did:
Coconut Caramel **totally dairy-free!!
**make ahead, so it's fully cooled when you use it
**be extremely careful when making caramel! Caramel burns are some of the absolute worst. It is like blistering-hot super-sticky glue. The only way to get it off is with very hot water, which would be agony on a burn. If I still had young kids at home, I would only do this when they were gone or sound asleep. You really have to give caramel close attention when it is cooking, and you really don't want any chance of tripping over a little person with a pan full of hot caramel! :)
1 can of full-fat coconut milk (the cans are usually around 15 ounces)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
I tried it with coconut sugar, and it worked pretty well. I do think it is better with a lighter sugar,
but it worked okay. With coconut sugar or dark brown sugar, you can't cook it quite as
long as with a lighter sugar. It can easily taste a little burnt. I think that in future, I'll go back to
using light brown sugar for this.
Put all ingredients in a small-to-medium, heavy-bottomed pan. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, stirring several times so the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low, and cook until the mixture has darkened and reduced (thickened). Do not stir during the second part of the cooking. The recipe I started with said to cook for 20-30 minutes. With the coconut sugar I pulled it off at a little over 15 minutes and it still seemed a little dark. So- if you use a darker sugar, expect it to be done much sooner.
I learned a secret for this process, from Mary Berry on the Great British Bakeoff. (I love that show!) She said to listen to caramel; that it is very noisy to start with but suddenly gets more quiet when it is ready. The change is not quite so obvious with alternative caramel, but still helpful to know.
Making the "butter"cream frosting:
**totally dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, etc. etc.
**does contain nightshades, if you use the Earth Balance
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) Earth Balance soy-free "buttery sticks"- softened
2 Tablespoons Spectrum palm-kernel oil shortening, softened
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
Zest of one medium-sized navel orange
1/2 cup-2/3 cup coconut caramel
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
a pinch of sea salt
(I added several tablespoons of fresh orange juice, with was tasty, but made the frosting separate a bit. I then added a couple of tablespoons of tapioca starch, to counteract the splitting. It worked fairly well. In future, I'll try it with just the zest and see how that goes. This batch tasted good, but the texture might have been slightly better without the juice)
-Powdered sugar ~ probably about 2 cups
Most buttercream recipes call for at least 4 cups of powdered sugar. The result is far, far too sweet
for me! I always use much less. It can be tricky finding the right balance, so it doesn't seem like
you're just eating sweetened shortening. I start with about 2 cups, beat it in, then taste. If you want
it sweeter, add 1/4 cup powdered sugar at a time, until it hits the right balance for you.
**There are several organic powdered sugars out there. For our corn-free daughter, we find one of
the few organic brands that is also free of corn-starch. These tend to clump, so it's best to rub the
powdered sugar through a sieve before adding it.
The warm coconut oil and soft fats can make this pretty soft. Once it's beaten together, you can refrigerate it for a half hour to an hour, until it's a good consistency. If you want a lighter texture, you can beat it again once it has firmed up. If it gets too hard, just let it sit out at room temperature for fifteen minutes or so, until it's the right consistency for you.
For this cake, I just sliced it horizontally, spread a layer of frosting, added the top layer and spread frosting over the top. If I had wanted to do some decorative piping, I would have chilled the frosting again until it was a better consistency for piping.
I hope you enjoy experimenting with this! :)
*tiny miracle ~ I figured out how to add photos! :)
Vanilla Poppyseed cake with Caramel Orange Frosting
I am fifty years old today! I have actually been excited to reach this milestone birthday.
I simply love fresh starts and clean slates: new days, new years, and especially new decades. Stepping into a brand new half-century is, for most people, a once-in-a-lifetime event! :)
I usually bake my own birthday cake, because I love to do it. :) It is part of the fun for me. I debated about what to bake this year. Should it be the moist chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting that received such a good response from my family? Or what about the lemon cupcakes with lemon "butter"cream that they liked even more than the chocolate?
Those are both delicious, but I think I want to try something entirely new.
.....hours later.... That's what I did! It turned out pretty well. I still need to fine-tune the frosting, but it was pretty tasty. :) In fact, I'm enjoying another piece as I write this. :) The cake is a good texture- moist and tender. It's not as light as a wheat-based cake, but a great improvement over some gluten-free cakes I've had. It received enthusiastic thumbs-ups from my hubby and our son this evening, and requests for second helpings. :)
Vanilla Poppyseed Cake (with Caramel Orange "Butter"cream Frosting)
*gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, vegan, etc. etc.
**contains nightshades**
I am just beginning the journey of learning to bake nightshade-free, so I don't have every recipe switched-over yet. This one starts with a mix that contains potato starch, and uses a butter-substitute that has pea protein in it. For those of you who have no trouble with those things, I hope you enjoy this bake. :)
**Each Betty Crocker box mix makes one layer! This is important to know ahead of time. Given the cost of gluten-free mixes, I tend to opt for making one layer, then splitting and filling it. In our small rural town, each gluten-free mix costs around five dollars, which is more than double the cost of a regular cake mix. Since we've been cutting back on sweets, having a shorter cake works better for us anyway. We still get all the yum-factor, but end up only eating half as much cake. :)
Ingredients for the cake:
1 box Betty Crocker gluten-free yellow cake mix
1 stick Earth Balance soy-free butter substitute, softened
(or 1/2 cup of the fat that works for you)
1 Tablespoon gluten-free vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon poppyseeds
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
1 Tablespoon flaxmeal
(the brown type works fine, but I think the gold flaxmeal would be prettier in a light cake)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup water
Preheat oven to: 350 (if using a shiny pan) or 325 (if using a dark or non-stick pan)
Prepare pan: lightly spray, oil or grease the bottom of the pan. I also cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom. This helps reduce the chance of tearing chunks out of the cake when you take it from the pan later.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. If using a hand mixer, the time suggested on the box should work well (a total of about 2 1/2 minutes). If you're using a stand mixer like a Kitchen Aid, it will probably take less time.
*One of the benefits of gluten-free baking is that you don't have to worry about over-working gluten and toughening your finished product. I have learned, though, that over-mixing a gluten-free batter will put too much air into it, causing it to come out drier and more crumbly. Just beat the cake batter until it's nice and smooth. It will be noticeably thicker than usual cake batter.
Gently pour/scoop the batter into the prepared pan. You don't want to lose all the lightness you just beat into it, by being too rough at this point. :) Smooth out the surface of the batter and bake.
The box directions say to bake a 9x9 cake for 33-38 minutes. This will vary, depending on the altitude at which you live. If you have adjusted the temperature correctly for the type/color of pan you used, then the baking time should be close to what they suggest. I would check it a few minutes early, just to be on the safe side. (I used an 8x8 pan to bake my cake today)
Bake until the cake has started to pull away from the sides of the pan slightly, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If there is still gooey batter sticking to it, the cake needs more time. A gluten-free cake does not usually brown the same way a wheat-based cake does, but this one sure did. When this is done, it should be a nice golden brown color . If you press gently in the center, it should feel fairly firm. If it squishes, there's probably raw batter in the middle.
Let the cake sit in the pan for a few minutes, then turn it onto a cooling rack. If you used parchment paper, carefully peel it off. Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
Caramel Orange "Butter"cream Frosting
You can certainly make this just an orange frosting, which would be faster and easier. I do love the addition of the caramel, though. I used a homemade coconut-milk caramel. You may be able to find a ready-made dairy-free caramel, in larger towns than ours. Living in the "back of beyond," I am learning to make my own.
Here is what I did:
Coconut Caramel **totally dairy-free!!
**make ahead, so it's fully cooled when you use it
**be extremely careful when making caramel! Caramel burns are some of the absolute worst. It is like blistering-hot super-sticky glue. The only way to get it off is with very hot water, which would be agony on a burn. If I still had young kids at home, I would only do this when they were gone or sound asleep. You really have to give caramel close attention when it is cooking, and you really don't want any chance of tripping over a little person with a pan full of hot caramel! :)
1 can of full-fat coconut milk (the cans are usually around 15 ounces)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
I tried it with coconut sugar, and it worked pretty well. I do think it is better with a lighter sugar,
but it worked okay. With coconut sugar or dark brown sugar, you can't cook it quite as
long as with a lighter sugar. It can easily taste a little burnt. I think that in future, I'll go back to
using light brown sugar for this.
Put all ingredients in a small-to-medium, heavy-bottomed pan. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, stirring several times so the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low, and cook until the mixture has darkened and reduced (thickened). Do not stir during the second part of the cooking. The recipe I started with said to cook for 20-30 minutes. With the coconut sugar I pulled it off at a little over 15 minutes and it still seemed a little dark. So- if you use a darker sugar, expect it to be done much sooner.
I learned a secret for this process, from Mary Berry on the Great British Bakeoff. (I love that show!) She said to listen to caramel; that it is very noisy to start with but suddenly gets more quiet when it is ready. The change is not quite so obvious with alternative caramel, but still helpful to know.
Making the "butter"cream frosting:
**totally dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, etc. etc.
**does contain nightshades, if you use the Earth Balance
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) Earth Balance soy-free "buttery sticks"- softened
2 Tablespoons Spectrum palm-kernel oil shortening, softened
1 Tablespoon melted coconut oil
Zest of one medium-sized navel orange
1/2 cup-2/3 cup coconut caramel
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
a pinch of sea salt
(I added several tablespoons of fresh orange juice, with was tasty, but made the frosting separate a bit. I then added a couple of tablespoons of tapioca starch, to counteract the splitting. It worked fairly well. In future, I'll try it with just the zest and see how that goes. This batch tasted good, but the texture might have been slightly better without the juice)
-Powdered sugar ~ probably about 2 cups
Most buttercream recipes call for at least 4 cups of powdered sugar. The result is far, far too sweet
for me! I always use much less. It can be tricky finding the right balance, so it doesn't seem like
you're just eating sweetened shortening. I start with about 2 cups, beat it in, then taste. If you want
it sweeter, add 1/4 cup powdered sugar at a time, until it hits the right balance for you.
**There are several organic powdered sugars out there. For our corn-free daughter, we find one of
the few organic brands that is also free of corn-starch. These tend to clump, so it's best to rub the
powdered sugar through a sieve before adding it.
The warm coconut oil and soft fats can make this pretty soft. Once it's beaten together, you can refrigerate it for a half hour to an hour, until it's a good consistency. If you want a lighter texture, you can beat it again once it has firmed up. If it gets too hard, just let it sit out at room temperature for fifteen minutes or so, until it's the right consistency for you.
For this cake, I just sliced it horizontally, spread a layer of frosting, added the top layer and spread frosting over the top. If I had wanted to do some decorative piping, I would have chilled the frosting again until it was a better consistency for piping.
I hope you enjoy experimenting with this! :)
Friday, April 13, 2018
Cinnamon Orange Walnut Pinwheel Biscuits
Like all of my recipes, these are a work in progress. Instead of waiting until I have them perfect (which may never happen) I'm sharing with you now, so you can enjoy them, too. :) I love these little bits of biscuity goodness! With my limited diet, it's especially nice to have a tasty treat now and then.
Cinnamon Orange Walnut Pinwheel Biscuits
Makes about a dozen biscuits ~ number varies, depending on how you assemble and cut them
-ahead of time, set out some butter-alternative to soften for the filling
~Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-line your baking sheet with parchment paper (not essential, but helpful)
Dry ingredients:
1 cup millet flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
~ whisk all dry ingredients until well mixed
Add:
1/2 cup fat of your choice (1 stick, if using "butter-style" margarine)
I've been using Earth Balance Soy-free sticks, which have worked well. Having recently
remembered that this has pea protein (which my body does not like), I am pondering what to use
to replace it. For now, I'm sharing this recipe as-is. Once I have a solution, I'll add updates.
1 Tablespoon Spectrum palm-kernel oil shortening- gives a more "buttery" feel to the biscuits
It's important to have the fat cold, for biscuits. I take the Earth Balance straight from the fridge, cut it into chunks, then work the chunks into the dry ingredients with my hands. A pastry blender also works well. I've been using the Spectrum at room temperature, which has been working fairly well. It gets a little too hard if kept in the fridge.
~Work both fats into the dry ingredients. It's okay if there are still some smallish lumps of fat. It does not have to be a perfectly even texture.
Liquid:
two options:
1 cup plain vegan yogurt (I use SoDelicious coconut yogurt)
-or-
3/4 cup alternative milk (or a little more, if the dough is too dry)
I used Coconut Dream unsweetened original coconut milk
Whichever you choose, use a fork to stir the liquid into the dry ingredients, just until combined.
Turn the dough out onto a cutting board or counter that has been dusted with more of the millet flour-tapioca starch blend. Knead the dough together lightly and pat it out into a rough rectangle. Roll it gently until it is about 1/4" -3/8" thick, in a rectangle of about 9x12 inches.
Filling:
about 2 Tablespoons butter alternative, soft
I use Earth Balance soy-free stick margarine
cinnamon (maybe about a teaspoon~ adjust to your personal preference)
zest of 1 small orange
I use a small microplane grater to zest citrus, and it works very well
1/2 cup chopped or ground walnuts
I use my Pampered Chef nut grinder, on the coarse setting. You want these to be fairly small
pieces, as the dough is thin and fairly delicate
Gently spread the softened "butter" over the dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon, orange zest, and walnuts. Of course, a sprinkle of sugar would be delicious, but I am really trying to cut back on sugar. It tasted just fine to me without the added sugar. If you do choose to add sugar, they may burn more quickly on the bottom, so watch carefully as they bake.
Gently roll dough into a "log." Whether you roll lengthwise or crosswise is purely personal preference. If you start with the long side, you'll have smaller pinwheels, but more of them. If you start with the short side, you'll have pinwheels that are larger in diameter and have more spirals, but fewer in number.
Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into slices of about 1/2" to 3/4" thick. Of course, all the variables of dough thickness, generosity of filling, direction of rolling, and thickness of the slices will determine how many you end up with. Carefully transfer slices to the lined baking sheet.
Leave a little space between them on the baking sheet, so they have a better chance of cooking through. I like dough, but doughy middles are a little unappetizing.
Bake:
-at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, for about 20 minutes. I check mine at 15 minutes, just to be on the safe side. If your pinwheels are very petite, you might even check them at 12 minutes. They should be golden brown on the bottom, and cooked through the middle.
Transfer to a cooling rack, so the bottoms don't keep browning.
Cinnamon Orange Walnut Pinwheel Biscuits
Makes about a dozen biscuits ~ number varies, depending on how you assemble and cut them
-ahead of time, set out some butter-alternative to soften for the filling
~Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-line your baking sheet with parchment paper (not essential, but helpful)
Dry ingredients:
1 cup millet flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
~ whisk all dry ingredients until well mixed
Add:
1/2 cup fat of your choice (1 stick, if using "butter-style" margarine)
I've been using Earth Balance Soy-free sticks, which have worked well. Having recently
remembered that this has pea protein (which my body does not like), I am pondering what to use
to replace it. For now, I'm sharing this recipe as-is. Once I have a solution, I'll add updates.
1 Tablespoon Spectrum palm-kernel oil shortening- gives a more "buttery" feel to the biscuits
It's important to have the fat cold, for biscuits. I take the Earth Balance straight from the fridge, cut it into chunks, then work the chunks into the dry ingredients with my hands. A pastry blender also works well. I've been using the Spectrum at room temperature, which has been working fairly well. It gets a little too hard if kept in the fridge.
~Work both fats into the dry ingredients. It's okay if there are still some smallish lumps of fat. It does not have to be a perfectly even texture.
Liquid:
two options:
1 cup plain vegan yogurt (I use SoDelicious coconut yogurt)
-or-
3/4 cup alternative milk (or a little more, if the dough is too dry)
I used Coconut Dream unsweetened original coconut milk
Whichever you choose, use a fork to stir the liquid into the dry ingredients, just until combined.
Turn the dough out onto a cutting board or counter that has been dusted with more of the millet flour-tapioca starch blend. Knead the dough together lightly and pat it out into a rough rectangle. Roll it gently until it is about 1/4" -3/8" thick, in a rectangle of about 9x12 inches.
Filling:
about 2 Tablespoons butter alternative, soft
I use Earth Balance soy-free stick margarine
cinnamon (maybe about a teaspoon~ adjust to your personal preference)
zest of 1 small orange
I use a small microplane grater to zest citrus, and it works very well
1/2 cup chopped or ground walnuts
I use my Pampered Chef nut grinder, on the coarse setting. You want these to be fairly small
pieces, as the dough is thin and fairly delicate
Gently spread the softened "butter" over the dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon, orange zest, and walnuts. Of course, a sprinkle of sugar would be delicious, but I am really trying to cut back on sugar. It tasted just fine to me without the added sugar. If you do choose to add sugar, they may burn more quickly on the bottom, so watch carefully as they bake.
Gently roll dough into a "log." Whether you roll lengthwise or crosswise is purely personal preference. If you start with the long side, you'll have smaller pinwheels, but more of them. If you start with the short side, you'll have pinwheels that are larger in diameter and have more spirals, but fewer in number.
Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into slices of about 1/2" to 3/4" thick. Of course, all the variables of dough thickness, generosity of filling, direction of rolling, and thickness of the slices will determine how many you end up with. Carefully transfer slices to the lined baking sheet.
Leave a little space between them on the baking sheet, so they have a better chance of cooking through. I like dough, but doughy middles are a little unappetizing.
Bake:
-at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, for about 20 minutes. I check mine at 15 minutes, just to be on the safe side. If your pinwheels are very petite, you might even check them at 12 minutes. They should be golden brown on the bottom, and cooked through the middle.
Transfer to a cooling rack, so the bottoms don't keep browning.
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Cauli-Mash
As I move into a potato-free world, I have had some real adjustments to make. In my family, potatoes are a beloved food group all by themselves. On Thanksgiving, after pie, I would go back and have more mashed potatoes.
When I realized that, since tomatoes and peppers both bother me, then their much-loved cousin probably needed to go too, I struggled. This was a tough one for me. I very much needed some good solutions to fill that gap.
White sweet potatoes have stepped in, and their help is much appreciated. It's a little odd to have bites of sweet in savory dishes, but I'll take that gladly over not eating those things at all.
I'd heard of people using cauliflower as a mashed potato substitute, but I was never motivated to try it until I had to kiss potatoes good-bye. As it turns out, making a cauliflower mash is much, much faster than doing mashed potatoes, and I like it quite a lot.
The real seal of success was when my hubby tried it, and found it enjoyable. Maybe not so much the first time (I had accidentally used a little vanilla-flavored alternative milk, which made them a little odd.) Even with that, he thought they weren't bad. The second time, without the subtle hint of vanilla, he liked them even better.
So, here is how I make Cauli-Mash
(which is quicker than saying Cauliflower-based Alternative to Mashed Potatoes) ;)
Cauli-Mash
1 head of cauliflower
water
salt ~ I start with about a half-teaspoon, and add more if needed
"butter"-
I use Earth Balance soy-free stick + a little Spectrum palm-kernel oil shortening
~ maybe 3 Tablespoons Earth Balance and a teaspoon or so of Spectrum
**it has occurred to me that Earth Balance does have pea protein, so not completely
free of the nightshade family. Maybe a mix of butter-flavored coconut oil and Spectrum
will work? I'll try that next time and share the results.
if needed, a little alternative milk-
I use Coconut Dream unsweetened original shelf-stable coconut milk
Wash and trim the cauliflower, removing all the leaves and the heavy base, and trimming off any questionable bits from the top. I also cut up into the base, removing a lot of the central core, so it will cook more quickly and evenly.
Put the whole head in a pot, with an inch or two of water. Cover, bring to a boil, turn down slightly and simmer for about 15 minutes, until a paring knife will poke into it pretty easily. Drain the water off.
I put my cooked cauliflower on a cutting board (so I don't burn my hands), break it into chunks and put them into the food processor. I pulse it a few times, add salt, then start adding my chosen fats. I start with a couple of tablespoons of Earth Balance and a teaspoon of Spectrum, then add more if needed. I pulse it until it's nice and smooth. If the processor seems to be laboring, I add some coconut milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it starts to work well. Taste, and adjust the buttery-salty-creamy balance to your liking.
I really like this by itself, but it's also quite good with sauce-y things over it, such as the vinegar sauce of my quick-and-easy Chicken Adobo, or the lemony sauce of Chicken Piccata (that's what we had for dinner tonight- yum!)
*for those who can have it, some garlic would probably be a tasty addition, maybe simmering a clove or two along with the cauliflower and pureeing it all together.
When I realized that, since tomatoes and peppers both bother me, then their much-loved cousin probably needed to go too, I struggled. This was a tough one for me. I very much needed some good solutions to fill that gap.
White sweet potatoes have stepped in, and their help is much appreciated. It's a little odd to have bites of sweet in savory dishes, but I'll take that gladly over not eating those things at all.
I'd heard of people using cauliflower as a mashed potato substitute, but I was never motivated to try it until I had to kiss potatoes good-bye. As it turns out, making a cauliflower mash is much, much faster than doing mashed potatoes, and I like it quite a lot.
The real seal of success was when my hubby tried it, and found it enjoyable. Maybe not so much the first time (I had accidentally used a little vanilla-flavored alternative milk, which made them a little odd.) Even with that, he thought they weren't bad. The second time, without the subtle hint of vanilla, he liked them even better.
So, here is how I make Cauli-Mash
(which is quicker than saying Cauliflower-based Alternative to Mashed Potatoes) ;)
Cauli-Mash
1 head of cauliflower
water
salt ~ I start with about a half-teaspoon, and add more if needed
"butter"-
I use Earth Balance soy-free stick + a little Spectrum palm-kernel oil shortening
~ maybe 3 Tablespoons Earth Balance and a teaspoon or so of Spectrum
**it has occurred to me that Earth Balance does have pea protein, so not completely
free of the nightshade family. Maybe a mix of butter-flavored coconut oil and Spectrum
will work? I'll try that next time and share the results.
if needed, a little alternative milk-
I use Coconut Dream unsweetened original shelf-stable coconut milk
Wash and trim the cauliflower, removing all the leaves and the heavy base, and trimming off any questionable bits from the top. I also cut up into the base, removing a lot of the central core, so it will cook more quickly and evenly.
Put the whole head in a pot, with an inch or two of water. Cover, bring to a boil, turn down slightly and simmer for about 15 minutes, until a paring knife will poke into it pretty easily. Drain the water off.
I put my cooked cauliflower on a cutting board (so I don't burn my hands), break it into chunks and put them into the food processor. I pulse it a few times, add salt, then start adding my chosen fats. I start with a couple of tablespoons of Earth Balance and a teaspoon of Spectrum, then add more if needed. I pulse it until it's nice and smooth. If the processor seems to be laboring, I add some coconut milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it starts to work well. Taste, and adjust the buttery-salty-creamy balance to your liking.
I really like this by itself, but it's also quite good with sauce-y things over it, such as the vinegar sauce of my quick-and-easy Chicken Adobo, or the lemony sauce of Chicken Piccata (that's what we had for dinner tonight- yum!)
*for those who can have it, some garlic would probably be a tasty addition, maybe simmering a clove or two along with the cauliflower and pureeing it all together.
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